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Thursday, October 20, 2011

The very real difference between first and second class...

So, we waited for a while at the train station. Then it was time for us to board our intercity train. It was supposed to be non-smoking, but that doesn't stop Italians from smoking (we saw people smoking inside buildings -- despite it being illegal. We even saw police officers smoking in buildings!). The smoke started to make me sick. I had a killer migraine before we even left the station. The train ride was only about 10 minutes. Then we had to get on our next train -- the night train.

We dragged our luggage to the train that was supposed to be ours. The night train was supposed to have beds and be a comfortable overnight trip to Naples.

As it turned out, not so much. We walked along the platform to find our train car and passed by the cars with the beds in them. Our car was nowhere to be found. As we stood there trying to figure out what to do, another few train cars pulled into the station and attached to our train. Our train car was with them.

Immediately, my heart sank. There was a giant two marked on our train car... meaning second class. I know I said before that we bought Eurail passes for our train rides. Well, we spent extra money for first class instead of second class. We wanted a comfortable ride for our honeymoon! Well, apparently the guy who booked our tickets in Venice booked us second class instead of first class. I was not happy. Why pay extra if you're going to get booked wrong!? Especially since the night trains were the ones we really wanted first class for!

Second class night trains are cars with 6 people squished in dirty seats with no real leg room. There's no heat or air conditioning. I still had a migraine, the guy next to me had terrible B.O., and I couldn't get comfortable to sleep. The first class trains are quiet and so smooth. The second class trains apparently have no insulation because we could hear every noise the train made. And it was really bumpy.

Needless to say, it was a terrible trip. But, I thought, we just have to make it to Rome, and then we can switch to a nicer train for the trip to Naples. Well, our train arrived late and our train had already left for Naples. So, we had to go into the train station and wait in line forever to book new tickets. We made sure that we got booked for first class for the trip to Naples though, so I guess that worked out better for us!

We had to wait about an hour and then we boarded our train for Naples. It was a relatively quiet trip in a much nicer train car. So, at least we had that!

When we finally arrived in Naples, we took a taxi to our hotel. As we drove towards our hotel, besides fearing for my life (drivers in Italy are absolutely insane! Our taxi driver drove down the wrong side of the street and made up lanes as it suited him!), I thought, this place is disgusting! There was garbage everywhere. The city was just awful.

However, we made it to the hotel, and it was actually fantastic. I'm not sure how it ended up where it is. It looks SO nice compared to everything around it. We tried to check in, but were told that it would still be a few hours before our room was ready. So, we left our luggage at the front desk and started out on our journey through Naples.